Review of Sean Paul: Duttyology

Introduction

Sean Paul has jumped in to most people`s conciousness from nowhere with a series of hit singles from his second album "Dutty Rock" (a "dutty" is a pipe used for smoking certain well known herbs). For those of you whose conciousness has remained free of him, he`s a dancehall reggae artist from Jamaica.

Sean Paul Henriques is half Portugese, half Jamaican, a notable swimmer and water polo player. No, really, I`m not making this up. Not particularly "street" is it? But that doesn`t have to be a bad thing.

This DVD contains lots of material relating to "Dutty Rock" including the videos of the singles from the album, a live performance, and some behind the scenes material

Video

A variety of sources for the video material, but one constant. All full frame 4:3 material, which is perhaps surprising given the recent nature of it all. Or maybe it`s not really surprising, as this material is all sourced from the other side of the Atlantic, where it seems that widescreen is still not catching on as much as it has over here, certainly when it comes to music videos and concerts.

There are no problems with any of the video material, everything looks just fine.

Audio

Most of the material is available in DD2.0 stereo, with the exception of the concert, which is also available in DD5.1. This is not quite as good as you`d think, as the extra channels aren`t used to huge effect. That`s not to say that it`s bad, just not as brilliant as it could have been.

All of the other music sounds fine in DD2.0 stereo, just a shame that they didn`t mix it all in 5.1 and spend a bit more time on it.

The main problem is that if your Jamaican patois is not up to scratch then you might not always understand the songs. The speaking bits of the material are subtitled, but they left them off for the songs.

Features

Well, where do we start? Well, as the concert is the largest feature, we`ll call that the main feature. Therefore everything else is classed as an extra. And you get:-

Sumfest - Reggae Sumfest 2003 - behind the scenes of this festival in Montego Bay, with rehearsal footage and inverview footage, and a brush with the police.

Dutty Rock hitting the streets - more rehearsal and inverview footage, this time from the MuchMusic Video Awards. Also footage from the promotional tour, album signings and photo shoots.

Making of the videos - making of footage for 4 videos, plus the videos themselves. There`s also a bonus video too.

Wrapping up we have a photo gallery and web link.

Conclusion

A slightly confusing package this. There`s quite a bit of material here, but it`s all chopped together in little segments. The music videos are probably the best thing here, as they contain the best versions of the songs. The live concert is a bit of a let down, as some of the live versions neglect the original song to a large degree and just end up as lots of playing to the crowd (asking weed smokers to shout out for example). Some of the clips of live performance in the other sections show much better performances of some songs.

If you`ve been to a Sean Paul concert and you want to experience it again, then this DVD is all there is for now. I can`t really recommend that you buy it just for the music videos, even though they are the best bit. But if Sean Paul has passed you by and you like a bit of reggae/dancehall then you might want to investigate him further.